Justice News

South Carolina Man Sentenced To More Than Four Years In Prison On Securities Fraud Conspiracy And Money Laundering Charges

United States Attorney Anne M. Tompkins Western District Of North Carolina

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Today, U.S. District Judge Max O. Cogburn, Jr. sentenced Terry Wayne Gandy, 51, of Myrtle Beach, S.C. to serve 57 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for stealing more than $2 million from investors, announced Anne M. Tompkins, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Judge Cogburn also ordered Gandy to pay $3,076,411.34 as restitution to his victim investors.

John A. Strong, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Charlotte Division, Thomas J. Holloman III, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CI) and and B.W. Colier, Acting Director of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) join U.S. Attorney Tompkins in making today’s announcement.

According to filed court documents and today’s sentencing hearing, from 2000 to 2009 Gandy and his conspirators engaged in an investment fraud scheme that defrauded his victim investors of more than $2 million. According to court documents, Gandy was the owner and operator of TakeSix Trading Fund (TakeSix), which Gandy falsely held out to be a bona fide investment firm, when in fact TakeSix was never registered in North Carolina or elsewhere. Gandy used TakeSix to induce his victims to invest through the company, claiming, among other things, that their money would be invested in various project such as real estate and oil and gas wells. Contrary to Gandy’s claims, very little, if any, of the victim’s money was actually invested.

According to court documents and court proceedings, Gandy mainly targeted his former co-workers at Philipp Morris and solicited funds from them, promising rates of return anywhere between 20% to 30% annually. Instead of investing the victims’ money as promised, Gandy used it to fund his own personal lifestyle, including payment for luxury hotel accommodations on multiple trips to Las Vegas, cash withdrawals at Las Vegas casinos, purchase of luxury cars, and to pay purported “profits” to other investors who asked for their money, commonly known as “Ponzi” payments. Court records indicate that to further support his fraudulent scheme, Gandy provided his victim-investors false account statements depicting bogus and over-inflated account balances. In all, Gandy and his conspirators defrauded more than thirty victims of over $2 million. Co-conspirator John Reid Perkins earlier pleaded guilty to securities fraud conspiracy for his role in the scheme on September 6, 2013. Perkins is currently awaiting a sentencing date.

In handing down the 57 month sentence, Judge Cogburn emphasized that the “sentence is necessary to deter others who may be thinking of engaging in such unlawful conduct.”

Following the sentencing hearing, Gandy was permitted to remain on bond and will be ordered to report to the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility. All federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole.

The investigation was handled by FBI, IRS and SBI. Assistant United States Attorney Mark T. Odulio of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte prosecuted the case.